Israel's 60th Anniversary
May 14, 1948, the
Jewish National Council proclaimed the State of Israel
by Beth Rowen
May 14, 2008, marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of the
modern State of Israel. As part of the
19th-century Zionist movement, Jews had begun
settling in Palestine as early as 1820.
This effort to establish a Jewish homeland received British approval in the
Balfour Declaration of 1917.
During the 1930s,
Jews persecuted by the Hitler regime
poured into Palestine. The postwar acknowledgment of the Holocaust—Hitler's
genocide of 6 million Jews—increased international interest in and sympathy
for the cause of Zionism. However, Arabs in Palestine and surrounding
countries bitterly opposed prewar and postwar proposals to partition
Palestine into Arab and Jewish sectors. The British mandate to govern
Palestine ended after the war, and, in 1947, the UN voted to partition
Palestine. When the British officially withdrew on May 14, 1948, the Jewish
National Council proclaimed the State of Israel.
Prominent Israeli Politicians
Other Players in Modern Israel's History
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